Political power needs openness to function. This is especially true for systems that are based on parliaments. Modern parliaments are reliant on public access to perform their command of representation. In the 19th century this was mainly achieved by means of written protocols of the parliamentary debates and by press coverage. In addition, this parliamentary openness also had a visual side: press drawings, photographs, caricatures, paintings and postcards.

This visual representation is the focus of this project. Its aim is a comparative analysis of the German and Dutch visual culture in the Interbellum period, which is embedded in the national parliamentary culture and public sphere. Starting point and binding element will consist of the photos that the Berlin photographer-journalist Erich Salomon made, both in the German Reichtstag as - in exile - in Netherlands - in both chambers of the Dutch parliament. These pictures provide an excellent personal historical access, to a comparative investigation into the common and different political traditions and medial order.

An expert seminar will take place from 14 until 16 December 2011 in Nymegen, The Netherlands, as part of the KGParl and CPG project Parliamentary visual culture in the Dutch-German comparison 1918-1940

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The Commission for the History of Parliamentarianism and Political Parties (KGParl) was founded in Bonn in 1951 by a group of renowned historians, jurists and political scientists. Since then its main objective has been basic research in the historical development of parliamentarianism and political parties. Recently the Commission has put a new focus on comparative research in the development of European parliamentarianism and the relationship between parliament, media and the public sphere.

With more than 250 publications since 1952 it has made fundamental contributions to the knowledge and understanding of political and parliamentary development during the nineteenth and twentieth century especially in Germany.